過去，很少有人從法制史的角度，就1-6世紀的「僧人與法律」問題進行專題研究。本文選擇出家為僧及其犯罪、立契這三個觀察點，嘗試考察這個時期僧人與法律的實況（包括相關立法、僧人犯罪以及僧人立契）之一斑。 就「出家」這一行為而言，政府的基本態度是：觀望→禁止→控制。這一過程是以通過法律手段來實施的，體現了王權與教權的較量，最終的發展趨勢是王權控制並利用教權。 從文獻記載可知，一些行跡惡劣的僧人頻頻犯罪，觸犯刑律。僧俗兩界均諱言此事，但其確實存在，則是不爭的事實。僧人犯罪的原因並非偶然，拋開一般犯罪學原理不談，必定與佛教傳入中國所產生的一系列異變有著直接的關鍵。 在吐魯番出土的契約文書中，保存了不少高昌僧人參與立契活動的歷史資訊，反映出在當時深受北朝回傳之漢地大乘佛教影響的吐魯番地區，其僧人的民事法律地位與俗人無別。而這正是高昌佛教發展世俗化的產物。此或可作為瞭解當時中原地區僧人之民事活動與民事法律地位的參考。

In the past, few scholars researched the issue of "buddhists and the law" between the first and the sixth century from the perspective of legal system history. This article chooses three main activities to study the relationships between buddhists and the law in this period and is so named “Becoming Buddhists, Committing Crimes and Making Contracts. As to the activity of becoming a buddhist, the government showed its basic attitudes from “wait-and-see”, “prohibiting”, and then to“controlling” at the last. These variations proceeded with the implementation of legal means. The process showed the contention between monarchy and religious right. It’s the eventual tendency that monarchy controlled and utilized religious right. Some literature records show that some bad buddhists repeatedly committed crimes, violating criminal laws. Though buddhists and normal people refused to talk about it, its existence was out of doubt. The sources of the buddhists’ offences didn’t appear by chance. Besides the general principles of Criminology, they directly connected with a series of variations of Buddhism during it’s spreading in China. Some historical informations about the buddhists’ activities of making contracts is preserved in the unearthed contracts in Turpan. These information show that, impacted by Chinese Mahayana Buddhism that spread back to Turpan in Northern Dynasty, buddhists were equal with normal people in civil laws in this area. The result of the secularization of the Gaochang Buddhism. Perhaps we can use this theory as a reference of understanding the civil activities and civil legal status of buddhists in Central Plains region.